The Fab Four put
on a wonderful show Saturday night at the House of Blues, filled with many
solid performances and surprises. The show was in honor of the 37th
anniversary of “A Hard Day’s Night,” and thus the night’s festivities were
focused primarily on that film’s music, with a few nods to The Beatles’
other films, as well as a number of out of the ordinary numbers.

The first set
had been promised to deliver the entire “A Hard Day’s Night” LP, and while
the Fabs didn’t perform the LP in order, each and every one of the stellar
13 tracks was played. The night opened with the double whammy of
“A Hard Day’s Night” which dovetailed into “I Should Have Known Better,”
as it does on the record. This continued with the next two tracks
on the album, the stunning “If I Fell” and the earnest George-sung rocker
“I’m Happy Just To Dance With You,” which was perhaps the first real highlight
of the night. The merciless onslaught of “Night” material continued
in random order and was a testament to how incredibly strong the 1964 LP
was: “Tell Me Why,” “You Can’t Do That” and “Anytime At All” were all delivered
expertly, as was the next real highlight of the night, the superb “I’ll
Cry Instead.” Of particular note during this performance were the
breakdowns, where Paul (Ardy Sarraf) plucked out the thudding, descending
bass line while holding the bass upright and John (Ron McNeil) sang the
line “I’ll show you what your loving man can do.” A real treat for
all in attendance. Next came the haunting Paul piece “Things We Said
Today,” one of Paul’s most achingly sincere early songs. Of particular
note was John’s strident strumming of an acoustic guitar, much like in
the original. During one of Paul’s “things we said today” lines,
he chose to forego this and instead invited everyone in the audience to
scream, which was a real surprise and a welcome one in the audience, greeted
with enthusiastic replies. The Fabs ended the song tastefully on
a minor 7th chord, which was also another true surprise. After this
was the incredibly stunning “I’ll Be Back,” followed by the rocking “Can’t
Buy Me Love,” which is a standard at pretty much every Fab Four show.
After this the Fabs went into a beautifully thoughtful rendition of “And
I Love Her,” even going so far as to emulate the positions of The Beatles
from the film “A Hard Day’s Night”: John seated while strumming an acoustic
guitar, George (Michael Amador) standing with one leg on the drum riser,
playing a classical, nylon string guitar. The result was thrilling.
At this point, The Fabs chose to throw in a few surprising b-sides from
1964, both from the “Long Tall Sally” EP. First was the Carl Perkins
rocker “Matchbox,” which featured a great lead vocal from Ringo (Rolo Sandoval).
After this, Paul commented “we’ve never performed this next song before”
to which John replied “that makes us virgins or something.” The next
song was the howling “When I Get Home,” which seemed surprisingly tight
for a premiere performance. Next came the second b-side from the
“Sally” EP, the raucous “Slow Down,” which had many people on the floor
dancing along, as well as emulating John’s screams and silly bi-labial
fricatives. The set closed with a number that was in the “A Hard
Day’s Night” film but not on the LP (as it had appeared the previous year
on “Please Please Me”), “She Loves You,” another Fab Four standard.

As the Fabs emerged
for the second set in the usual “Sgt. Pepper” costumes, they threw a real
curveball at the audience, the wonderful and long clamored for “Hello Goodbye.”
The performance hearkened the promotional clip for the song, where The
Beatles also performed in the “Pepper” suits at London’s Saville Theater.
The song ended with the famous “maori finale” and went back into the instrumental
section for the “you say goodbye, I say hello” part, which was a nice touch.
All in all, a true highlight of the evening and hopefully a song that will
become a staple of the Fab Four’s live performances. After this came
the obligatory “Sgt. Pepper” which segues into Ringo’s “With A Little Help
From My Friends,” which never fails to charm and captivate the crowd.
And though the next song was yet another Fab Four standard – “Day Tripper”
– the instrumentation was unusually very tight and fierce, making it undeniably
one of the highlights of the evening. Up next were two songs which
appeared on the U.S. “Magical Mystery Tour” LP, the fabulous a and b-sides
of “Penny Lane” and “Strawberry Fields Forever.” After this came
another rarely performed number, the Lennon rocker from the “Yellow Submarine”
film, “Hey Bulldog,” which is always received enthusiastically whenever
performed. Up next was a bizarre treat, the “Revolver” album track
“Good Day Sunshine,” “because this is California.” The jaunty piano
and fine vocal harmonies made this a standout performance. The “Revolver”
theme continued with two more from that album that had also appeared in
the “Yellow Submarine” film: the exquisite “Eleanor Rigby” – which is always
astounding, since the band pulls it off without the aid of a string quartet
- and the raucous “Yellow Submarine.” Of particular note tonight
was John’s fish hand movement and bubbling noises into the mic during the
last chorus, something he doesn’t always do. And yet another song
from the popular “Revolver” album followed, the peerless Paul rocker “Got
To Get You Into My Life,” which never fails to get the audience clapping
along and even “raising the roof” in some circles. The set was concluded
with the “Sgt. Pepper Reprise” which segues into the captivating “A Day
In The Life,” which had many on the floor screaming during the orchestral
rave-ups.

The third set
began on a surprising note, with John’s “Come Together,” which is usually
performed a few songs into the third set. But the real focus of the
festivities was on Paul’s great new wig, a little bit longer in back and
looking much like his hairdo for the “Abbey Road” LP. “The mullet
is in full effect!” claimed Les Salva, one of The Fab Four’s most dedicated
fans (though I couldn’t help but liken the new wig to an early ‘80s Joyce
DeWitt from “Three’s Company”). Up next was the countrified rocker
“Get Back” which always gets the audience clapping along, followed by the
incredible “Here Comes The Sun,” a number always executed to perfection
with effortless flair by Michael Amador. “You wanna hear another
track from the white album?” asked Paul, which received an enthusiastic
reaction from the crowd. The Fabs went into the dancy “Ob-La-Di,
Ob-La-Da,” which thrilled many of the onlookers in the crowd. This
was followed by John’s tender “Imagine.” While introducing “Imagine,”
a patron yelled “I love you John!” to which John stoically replied “peace
brother,” which had many in the audience chuckling. Ringo’s “Octopus’s
Garden” came next, highlights of which are always George’s peerless guitar
playing and Paul and John’s vocal emulation of the underwater sound effects
in the bridge. Up next was a triple whammy of rarely performed treats.
First off was one that is clamored for at nearly every show, Paul’s throat-chokingly
brilliant “Oh! Darling.” Ardy Sarraf’s incredible vocal stylings
on this number always give those in attendance goose bumps. As if
that wasn’t enough, up next was “one from the rooftop,” the incredible
John ballad “Don’t Let Me Down,” which visibly had several in the audience
jumping up and down for joy. Ron McNeil’s performance in this piece
is always thrilling, right down to the chilling “can you dig it!” in the
last chorus. Up next was the most bizarre choice of the entire evening.
Ringo fooled about on his drums for a bit, then finally launched into a
proper intro, as Paul began the coarse, bluesy vocals of “Why Don’t We
Do It In The Road.” Rarely performed – if ever – this was probably
the last song one would expect to hear at a Fab Four show, and for that
reason was quite a treat. Ardy’s vocals were thrilling, particularly
on the falsetto line in the third verse. Up next was the ever-rocking
“Birthday,” during which one of the patrons was invited on stage to play
tambourine and sing along (John dryly commented “that could be a liability
or sumthin’”). After this, John began his usual spiel about how “we
all want a change, and a change for the good,” but was greeted by some
curious feedback on the left side of the stage. For some reason,
this inspired George to start playing the opening guitar line to Ozzy Osbourne’s
“Crazy Train,” with Ringo following along on drums. Some in the audience
chose to scream out the familiar “Aye! Aye! Aye!”, which made for one of
the most hilarious moments of the evening. The Fabs concluded the
set with the always stunning “Revolution” and bid the audience goodnight.

Returning quickly
for an encore, the Fabs went into the always thrilling and majestic “Golden
Slumbers” medley. One simply can’t get enough of this thrillingly
ornate, yet uncompromisingly rocking medley, which isn’t performed all
that often. After the “and in the end” line tonight, it’s evident
that George’s little guitar lick was echoed, much like it is on the record,
which made for a very nice touch. Afterwards, the band took their
“less Paul” joke to new heights. As Paul commented on George’s Les
Paul guitar, and George commented “but what we need is less Paul and more
George!” he followed this up with the wildly enthusiastic “and I think
they all agree!” which was quite over the top and very funny. Another
clever moment came when Ron McNeil introduced Ardy Sarraf as David Cassidy
– because of his new wig – and Ardy began singing “I Think I Love You.”
The show closed with the anthemic “Hey Jude,” once again sporting the marvelous
addition of the orchestral coda on keyboard by Michael Amador.

The Fab Four provided
a wonderful night of entertainment for all in attendance at the House of
Blues. While the show may have lacked the all-encompassing theme
of the “McCartney Birthday Bash” in June, the show was equally as thrilling,
with its inclusion of the entire “A Hard Day’s Night” LP, as well as the
numerous surprise performances, the likes of which one will no doubt encounter
at any Fab Four show.